Air Canada rolling out in-flight WiFi on international flights this fall

Air Canada has offered passengers access to in-flight WiFi for over two years. In partnership with Gogo, Canada’s largest airline has equipped 129 of its narrow-body planes flying across North America with in-flight Wi-Fi . The company has announced plans to rollout to Wi-Fi capabilities to international flights.

Air Canada stated that in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity will be expanded internationally this fall and the company will begin installing Gogo 2Ku satellite technology on its Boeing 777 aircraft.

Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada, stated, “Air Canada is pleased to announce it will offer customers the ability to stay connected whenever and wherever they fly by extending in-flight, North American connectivity to its wide-body aircraft flying overseas using satellite technology. While business travellers will welcome satellite Wi-Fi service as a productivity tool, it will have widespread appeal for all travellers by allowing them to stay in touch, access the internet and enjoy additional entertainment options throughout their entire journey.”

WestJet is another Canadian airline that has started to offer in-flight WiFi, but Canada does lag behind our friends south of the border, such as American Airlines, Delta and United who offer WiFi on over 80 percent of fleet.

“For the low, low fee of $1,999.00/minute you can stay connected anywhere you fly!”

ifly2

$9 to access the Internet at 38,000′ above the earth, traveling at 80% of the speed of sound. I routinely pay more for a pint of beer. It’s not like they can just install a dlink router in the ceiling and the plane is good to go for wifi. What do you think they should charge for it?

Sanjay Kumar

i recently flew with Air-Canada. And I found their rates for internet reasonable.But some individuals just prefer to get everything in their economic bookings.

Jesus McDongswoggle

Next they’ll want top quality toilet paper in the airplane bathrooms

SSe

On my Air Canada flight from Toronto to New York…its was just $4 bucks for internet

Mike Salamander

how slow/fast was it?

Juice Box

Gogo’s webpage sells day passes for $16 for laptops or $8 for smart phones (24 hour pass valid for single flight; not clear if this is US or Cdn). Crazy, they offer weekly/monthly/annual plans on-par with cells plans on the ground. I’m glad I don’t fly enough to need that!

How good is it? The service is not intended for streaming, but has anyone used it and can comment on speed?

I don’t ever fly for business, so i don’t really need it, but at least now i won’t have to wait until we’ve landed to share my instagram pictures of the airplane sandwich i just spent $20 on. This is going to take my photography to a whole other level! Literally!

EChid

Yeah, for what I can accomplish during a flight the price seems well worth it. One thing to mention: The Americans may be ahead of us in terms of implementation, but many of their planes don’t have plugs, meaning productivity (and the value of their service) is limited by your computer’s battery life. Air Canada offers plugs on almost all of their flights.

Nadefrenzy

That’s good to hear, but unfortunately AirCanada is a joke of an airline when it comes to the international sphere. Emirates/Turkish Airlines ftw.

systemupdate

Look you pay around $50 to $60 per months for your home internet probably. So that would be $60/30=$2. Now your travels are usually 1 day and mostly 1 flight. hence, if you pay around $2 to $3 I think that is a fair price. But I think even around $4 would be ‘ok’.I hope that for those who have connecting flights with the same airline, they could still use the same login info for internet.